Sunday, December 9, 2007

Kai and I take a trip to Le Flor Reserve.

Kai and I headed to the beach for a little bit of fun and work this last weekend. It was my first time at a Nicaragua beach, and it was beautiful, not to mention amazing surf. And yes, Kai is really sleeping in that picture. One of many things he´s mastered. Actually I´ll create you a quick list of new skills Kai´s mastered:

About Me

I am a director of a national environmental leadership and social justice program for high school youth entitled Lake Superior Pathfinders.
My son, Kai is 4, and will be turning 5 while on this trip on January 8.

More information about El Menco

El Menco is located at the municipality of Buenos Aires, department of Rivas, 95 kilometers from the capital of Managua. It is one of the poorest communities of Buenos Aires.

BASIC INFRASTRUCTURE

This community does not have electricity or any kind of telecommunication.

Healthcare is poor.There is a tiny health center located at the entrance of “El Jenízaro” at the east side of the community, but it is always undersupplied.In case of emergency people have to travel 20 kilometers to Rivas – a long trip taking into consideration that there is not an ambulance or vehicles in the community.

There is only one primary school in the area, but it is too small to educate all of the children in the area.

There is no potable water on this community; forcing the people to drink untreated lake water or water from questionable hand dug wells.

Many of the homes in the community don’t have sanitary facilities, and most of those that do are saturated with solid waste. Most of the people do their necessities on land.

One hundred percent of the estimated 200 homes in the community are made of impermanent materials that allow the rain and critters to come into the house at all times.There is a high level of respiratory and urinary track infections in the community due to the poor housing and sanitary conditions.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Most of habitants don’t have a permanent job and live of fishing from the GreatLake (Cocibolca) and cattle farming.

The average income of a family in el Menco is less than $40 per month.

Due to the desperation, the community is selling lake sand to survive, creating an ecological problem.

POTENTIAL

Relatively good all weather roads to access the community

Availability of water for irrigation and human consumption.

Young population

Low possibilities for natural disaster

High possibilities to receive specialized services

Recognized agricultural abilities

High tourism potential

PLAN FOR DEVELOPMENT OF EL MENCO COMMUNITY

Goal: Reduce extreme poverty and hunger

Create a sociological study and census of the community.

Build homes and latrines for all needy families in the community.

Provide basic nutritional support for the families for one year

Build a community center that can be used as a technical training center or a local market.

Bring in technical assistance to create jobs or some sort of economic development in the communitythat can include a fishing village, small animal farms, or farming resources with a market component.

Create a small micro credit fund that can be tapped by each one of the home recipients.

Increase average salaries to over $1.00 per day

Goal: Achieve primary education

Increase the size of the school to allow all children to attend classes.

Provide meals and basic educational supplies for the students in the community as an incentive for parents to send the children to school, thus increasing the attendance rates and decreasing the drop out rates in the schools to ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling.

Goal: Promote gender equality

Build homes titled to the women.

Create jobs with the women in mind.

Create a small micro credit fund that can be tapped by the women in the community.

Increase the learning opportunities for girls in the community and the ratio of gils in school

Create awareness of the importance of education for the girls.

Goal: Reduce child mortality and combat basic diseases

Dig 5 wells to provide potable water to the community.

Build homes and latrines for all needy families in the community.

Create prevention campaigns to reduce the incident of the top 5 diseases killing children under 5.

Deworming programs.

Improve healthcare availability with donations of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies as well as hiring of permanent doctors for the community.

Healthcare prevention training programs

Goal: Improve maternal health

Improve healthcare availability with donations of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies as well as hiring of permanent doctors for the community.

Create maternal care awareness programs and availability of doctors in the community